India, Feb. 11 -- One of Windows' biggest advantages is the
large collection of commercial applications that are exclusive to the
platform. Often it is one or two of these applications that keep people
locked to Windows, which in turn gives application developers an
incentive to stick to Windows.

Wine neatly breaks this circle by implementing a compatibility
layer that allows Windows applications to run on Linux without
modification. Unfortunately a number of applications still do not
function properly, and by searching online you often get a series of
convoluted configuration parameters / patches / steps that can get your
favorite program working.

Codeweavers CrossOver Linux is a supported commercial offering that
simplifies the installation of popular applications such as Microsoft
Office, Adobe Photoshop, Internet Explorer and Quicken. CrossOver builds
on Wine, giving it a simple-to-use UI for installing popular
applications, and for managing multiple applications environments that
it calls bottles (from Wine bottles). Codeweavers has code named
CrossOver 10 "The Impersonator" since it impersonates Windows
in order to run Windows applications on Linux.

We thoroughly reviewed and tested CrossOver 9 when it came out, and
a majority of the functionality remains the same in this version. Before
going over what's fresh and new in this latest version, let's
reiterate some of the things that remain the same ? for a detailed
perspective, you can read the CrossOver Linux 9.0 review.

Bottles: CrossOver can isolate different applications installs from
each other using the concept of bottles.Every time you install an
application, CrossOver will create a fresh "bottle" with a
fresh virtual Windows "install" in it. The registry,
"Program Files" directory etc, are all separate for each
bottle, thus allowing you to install multiple copies of the same
application in different configurations, or install different versions
of the same applications. For example you can install Internet Explorer
6, 7 and 8 in parallel using CrossOver; this is something that is not
normally possible on Windows.

Each bottle has its own "Control Panel" and Wine
configuration, and can be tuned to a different version of Windows (98 /
2000 / XP / Vista / 7). Bottles can also be packaged and sent to other
users fro quick installation, or wrapped into installable Linux rpm /
deb packages.

Normally applications you double click will start running
immediately, you can specify a default bottle to run such applications
in.

Linux Integration: Applications installed using CrossOver integrate
well with the Linux distro. CrossOver automatically creates entries for
Windows applications in your distro's menu. All entries created by
Windows applications appear under a menu called "Windows
Applications", which for all intents and purposes is the equivalent
of the Windows "All Programs" menu.

Windows applications installed using CrossOver can also be
associated with files just as any other Linux application. You can even
drag and drop files on CrossOver applications, and copy paste (usually)
between Linux and Windows applications.

Installing applications: If the application you are installing is
supported by CrossOver, then installing it is as simple as selecting it
from the list of applications. CrossOver will, if it can, automatically
download all the libraries / components / fonts required by the
applications, and then download and install the application itself.
Example of this would be IE6, and 7 which can be installed in this
manner. In case of applications like Microsoft Office 2007, you merely
need to insert the software install disc, and CrossOver will detect the
application and start the setup.

Codeweaver has a large community of users who help maintain a large
database of all applications that can run on CrossOver, along with
ratings of how well they run. For many applications CrossOver users have
posted helpful tips and tricks to get applications running. In CrossOver
9, Codeweaver took advantage of their large community of users willing
to come up with and share recipes of how to make applications work, by
allowing such complex install procedures to be wrapped into XML
profiles, in the form of C4P files. These profiles could then be
downloaded from the CrossOver website and used to automate the install
of software that aren't officially supported by Codeweavers
themselves.

In the latest version, this feature has been further strengthened.
In place of C4P profiles you now have a system called CrossTie, that
uses .tie files which serve the same purpose. In CrossOver 10 these
profiles are automatically downloaded and updated from the software
interface.

Community-supported applications such as IrfanView can be installed
straight from CrossOver.

CrossOver will even warn you if you need to install any Linux
libraries to make the app work better.

This way if there is an improvement to any existing recipe or a new
recipe available it will automatically be downloaded and made available
in the interface.

One can still browse the CrossOver database to find CrossTie
profiles for applications that are not included with CrossOver. Now for
example you can easily download and install IrfanView from the CrossOver
interface, for which you would have needed to visit the CrossOver
website in the previous version.

You can choose whether you want profiles to be automatically
updated The settings for downloading application profiles can be refined
via "CrossOver Preferences"

CrossOver uses the open source Wine at its core ? CrossOver 10 uses
Wine 1.3.9 ? and contributes to its development. The direction and focus
of Codeweavers development of Wine is based on the votes and pledges
given to the many applications in its database.

Since the engine powering CrossOver, Wine, is free and open source,
one can get similar results from using Wine directly for free. While
Wine itself doesn't provide a UI for the same, some CrossOver
features such as automatic download and install of applications, and
creating "bottles" is possible using free / open source third
party software such as Wine-Doors and Q4Wine.

However, CrossOver provides a more integrated and polished solution
that provides a number of unique features such as archiving bottles,
making packages, and installing applications from profiles.

Crossover 10 is available in a number of versions. CrossOver is
available not only for Windows but for Mac OSX as well (although we
tested the Linux version). CrossOver has three editions for each
platform, Standard, Games, and Professional. CrossOver Games is
optimized for gaming, while CrossOver Professional adds features such as
deploying Windows applications as RPM, multi-user support etc. The
professional version also includes the Games license. The Standard and
Games versions cost $39.95 (currently ~ Rs. 1,850), while the
Professional version costs $69.95 (currently ~ Rs. 3,200).

If you are a Linux user who is struggling without your favorite
Windows application, you might want to give it a try under Wine and
CrossOver version. Chances are you will be pleasantly surprised.